photography: out and about

Last night I grabbed this shot of a guy I saw from a distance. He was backlighted. I wanted to capture the essence of backlight, but still have a little illumination in his face.

I used my flash but aimed at a wall that was about 30 feet behind me. It still gave me that illumination I wanted without blowing out his face.

Click to enlarge.

Enjoy!

 

 

Artists who dip their toes into new mediums

A close artist friend of mine named Ryan recently took the leap into the world of digital photography. Ryan designed our wedding invites, and we have his art up in our condo.

Here’s some of his art here.

He’s amazing with pen and ink. Often, his focus is letterforms. But he can draw so much more. But illustration is not often very lucrative. It’s difficult, and tricky to price out. Without a good break and especially with this economy, the future of an illustrative artist is dim.

This has deflated Ryan often.

Intermittently over the years, he called me asking for advice on which camera to buy. Between cold feet and other factors, he always decided to postpone his purchase.

About two months ago, he called and said he couldn’t decide on a camera to buy. I told him, “I’ll send you an old camera of mine that I’m not using. I’ll send you nice glass, and you can better decide if it’s something you want to do.”

I’m glad I did.

Ryan already has an amazing artist foundation. He understands scale and proportion. His framing is inspiring and whimsical.

But the even more amazing thing about Ryan was he did lots of press prep work throughout his professional career. His Photoshop background is translating into great post work.

Ryan has been snapping amazing shots (like the one above). Or this one below.

Go check more of his work here.

Be inspired. I know I am.

There’s never been a better time than right now to start your 10,000 hours of self-expansion.

The 2011 Air & Water Show

Shooting at the Air & Water Show is like target practice for a photographer like me. I alternate between shooting into the sky and trying to shoot people. I’m not very impressed with any of my people shots. They were just so so this year.

Even the above shot is really not that great. It could be crisper. The jets are incredibly fast, so catching them can be difficult.

The below is probably my favorite of the beach scenes that I took. I doctored it a little. Otherwise, I don’t have a lot of shots that I like in which people are looking at camera.

You can click to enlarge.